“MATRICs is a radio frequency toolbox on a chip,” says Greg Flewelling, a senior principal engineer at BAE Systems. “It covers a broad range of radio waveforms so that many different types of systems can be designed around it, including ones that need wide spectrum awareness and adaptability to dynamic and challenging signal environments.”

Engineers developed MATRICs and matured the technology under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Adaptive RF Technology (ART) program, which aims to advance radio’s hardware that can reconfigure themselves under a variety of operating conditions.

The design of the chips allows engineers to develop radio systems without the need for application-specific chips that can be costly and time consuming. Officials explain the chip can benifit from reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements and also lets engineers create rapid prototypes and working systems that can be fielded faster.